“Pension liabilities reported by California’s largest pension fund (CalPERS) rose nearly 5x in just 20 years, from less than $100 billion in 1997 to nearly $500 billion by 2017. Those liabilities were not approved by voters. They simply showed up. That steep growth happened because California employs an accounting method that allows it to initially suppress the value of pension promises to a fraction of their real value. But the deception is only temporary because the discount evaporates over time under a process known as ‘accretion.’ …”